36 
temporary publication * there were in 1636 
over 6,000 coaches, private and public, in 
London and the suburbs: surely more than 
were needed, as some 10,000 odd hansoms 
and four-wheelers meet London’s normal re- 
quirements to-day. 
Thomas D’Urfey’s song,t ‘“‘ Newmarket,” 
which is thought to have been written in 
the reign of Charles I., shows that New- 
market was then, as now, regarded as the 
headquarters of the Turf. 
THE COMMONWEALTH (1649-1659). 
Mr. Christie Whyte, in his Azstory of the 
English Turf, says:—‘ Oliver Cromwell, 
with his accustomed sagacity, perceiving 
the vast benefit derived to the nation by 
the improvement of its breed of horses, the 
natural consequence of racing, patronised 
this peculiarly national amusement, and we 
find accordingly that he kept a racing stud.” 
If Cromwell kept a racing stable it was 
before he took the style of “Lord Protector,” 
in December, 1653; for in February, 1654, 
he issued his first Proclamation against 
racing, in the shape of a prohibition for six 
* Coach and Sedan. 
+ Pills to Purge Melancholy. 
